McKoy’s 28-year-old daughter, Isys, and Domi have something in common: they are both Type 1 diabetics.

Montreal Canadiens’ Max Domi carries the puck up ice during third period against the Detroit Red Wings in Montreal on March 12, 2019.John Mahoney/Montreal Gazette

“That gives me an insight, but not into training like this,” McKoy, 57, said about his workouts with Domi.

“People have no clue … I had no clue,” McKoy added. “It’s unbelievable what he has to go through. I remember the first training session we had. I was just getting to know him to see what he was capable of. We did barely nothing and his blood sugar just crashed. I remember his number was at 1.7 … most people under 3 you’d be calling 911 and go to the hospital. He was like: ‘Don’t worry, give me five minutes.’ He took some juice and then hit it again. People just don’t have a clue of what he has to go through. He’s always pushing the envelope.”

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McKoy said he knew Domi’s father, Tie, and Mats Sundin, two former Toronto Maple Leafs, from “back in the day” and they asked him if he’d be willing to work with the Canadiens player. Domi and the former Olympian have become good friends and McKoy stayed at the player’s Montreal condo during training camp.

“He’s just so focused on training,” McKoy said. “He has more recovery and auxiliary equipment at home than most sports-medicine centres. He’s got a hyperbaric chamber. He’s got a sauna. He’s got hot and cold tubs — in his living room. He was doing balance work and trampoline work this morning after breakfast before he came here. I always tell people it’s all the little things in life that add up. You do that over the years and it’s going to pay off.”

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Max Domi, left, with trainer Mark McKoy, who won gold in the 110-metre hurdles at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. They train together during summer in Toronto.Courtesy of Mark McKoy.

Apart from his diabetes, Domi also has celiac disease, so he has to follow a very strict diet and has hired a personal chef to cook all his food.

“All his stuff is made from scratch with no gluten,” McKoy said. “All the carbs are counted. It’s an eye-opener. People just don’t realize what he goes through. They see him out on the ice and think: He’s pretty good. They have no idea.”

Domi also has a diabetic-alert dog named Orion. The 6-year-old yellow lab is trained to detect — through smell — high or low levels of blood sugar and will wake Domi up during the night when that happens by nudging him or barking.

After training with McKoy for the first time last summer, Domi had his best season in the NHL, posting 28-44-72 totals in his first season with the Canadiens after being acquired from the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for Alex Galchenyuk.

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McKoy was asked what Canadiens fans might be surprised to know about Domi.

“That’s a good one,” McKoy said before a long pause.

“OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder)? Maybe that’s not so surprising,” he added with a laugh. “The music he plays … it’s just pure rap music all the time. The moment he gets up in the morning, boom! The boom box goes on. You know when he’s up.”

As a former gold medallist, McKoy was asked in which Olympic sport Domi would excel.

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“According to me or according to him?” McKoy said with a laugh. “Because according to him, he’s good at everything. He’ll beat you at everything. He will not lose. We sprint and if I go faster, he’ll go faster. We play football, we play soccer … I was good at running in a straight line very fast, that’s it. He plays basketball, he plays football, he plays every sport well. He’s a really, really good all-around athlete.

“I’d put him in the 100, of course,” McKoy added. “He’s pretty quick. We don’t do a lot of flat-out sprinting. We do more conditioning type stuff, longer stuff. At the end, he always wants to know: ‘How fast am I? How fast can I run?’ So I got some electric timers and he ran 11.5. And this was in running shoes, no spikes or anything. We weren’t training to run 100 metres.”

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Domi has inspired McKoy to get back into competing himself in masters track-and-field events.

“We have a goal next year for both of us to run under 11 seconds, so we’ll see,” said McKoy, who remains in fantastic shape. “I haven’t competed since I hung them up in ’96. I’m thinking about it. He’s pushing me into it. I’m like: ‘Only if we both run under 11 seconds will I compete.’ So we’ll see.

“Any time I try to run with him, I pull a hamstring,” McKoy added. “I’m getting too old for this s—. But I’m competitive, too.”

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